Throughout Israel’s offensive on Gaza Benjamin Netanyahu and his political allies in government have been making a strong case for genocide, even though this may not be the result of the war. Yet, even if technically a genocide has not been committed, the intent is still there and the crime of genocide would still be considered to have been attempted. Hamas has made its genocidal intents very clear.
Netanyahu claimed that Palestinian sovereignty would not be possible because Israel would have to control all the land “from the river to the sea” in its security interest. This is not news, as this has been Netanyahu’s position ever since he was in politics, however these comments, now, come with a background of more than 20,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza, many of whom were women and children, and a long list of journalists many of whom were killed deliberately by the IDF. Despite all of this carnage, more than 100 Israeli hostages have not yet been saved.
Netanyahu also made an explicit genocidal statement during the early stages of the war where he made the Biblical reference to the Amalekites, a people that rivaled the Israelites in Biblical times. Netanyahu made this statement in a hawkish and warring speech saying “Remember what Amalek did to”, supposedly inferring how the Amalekites destroyed themselves by going to war against the Israelites. Biblical wars between small peoples were often genocidal in nature so one of the Biblical references on the Israelis’ war against the Amalekites says: “Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.”
The US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was in Israel this week and proposed to Netanyahu to prepare for a two-state solution with Palestine after the war is over. Netanyahu rejected this proposal and eventually gave his “River to the Sea” speech, but his hawkish and confident stance does not reflect his political reality. Netanyahu is isolated by the White House now, which is holding meetings with his political rivals behind his back and is instead discussing the future of Palestine with his more moderate rivals. His poll numbers in Israel are plummeting and calls for a new election are growing.
Netanyahu is right in saying he will be facing many hard questions after the war – it’s probably the only thing he is going to spend time on after his political career is over.
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